FM107 Loses It’s Popular Voices

Reliable sources and posts on Facebook are confirming that staff problems have got worse and now FM107 has terminated 5 staff who are popular names with the station.

Some may include Drusila, DJ Roxee, DJ Ley, Tensli Sumpe and Evline Takalou.

These staffs were very good and did their job well to serve the country.

Other online Media confirm that they were abusing free Digicel credit to their families.

YTS has not got any confirmation whether their termination followed the Labor Act or not and if severance was paid or not.

Rumors circulating in the media some months ago say that some longtime staff from before were not happy either with the new rates paid by new management as they were put on an hourly rate, then now this.

Since then, Eveline Toa left and has moved to TRR, Charly Sikal to Radio Vanuatu.

Ata Nite left for 96BuzzFM last year saying “we were not on the same page and as I’m a radio professional they couldn’t meet my market value.”

A regular listener, Tony from Mele said that “with all the favorite voices gone, we don’t listen anymore most of us change stations or go online.”

Sources inside also say that some staff jealousy and double face was breeding in the office with some staff like Hari Atison and Heta Marki wanting to run the show but were not qualified for management.

Last year DJ Sale also had a court case for stealing money laundering with a group from ANZ Bank but his name was cleared and he has to pay back what he took.

“Ever since the new manager took over everything is changed and we don’t like it. The old system was better. The expats don’t know about the radio business. They put expat supervisor when we locals can do the work ourselves,” said one of the ex-staff.

YTS has seen that staff are the life of a business and it is hard to find good replacements as radio is a specialized area in media.

Some members of the opposition media say that new owner Mr. Andrew Hobbs has little or no media background and bought the business to make money as he did with Wilco before he sold it.

“That someone like this was allowed to buy it shows stakeholders were desperate to sell it.”

“Local media must be run by qualified locals. We have our own way to run a business. The government should stop white man buying our own local media and let the local ni Vans run it themselves as it is our country,” a listener said.

Some bus drivers interviewed by YTS said that 107 is not like before where it was the best and always lively.

“Before we listen every morning and lunchtime music is good and DJs smart now its boring same thing every day,” said Jimi Tanna local bus driver.

Today, the majority of young listeners now use their mobiles for songs, Facebook and YouTube instead for what is interesting to them.

Facebook posts confirmed that they will open a new station FM97 to compete with 96 for English listeners.

YTS question is how many more stations do we need and how long will they survive.

While VBTC has improved under some new leadership, their management has also taken staff from other radio to try to improve their service and get more advertising apart from the generous government grant they get.

“We have been waiting too long many years for them to improve but now we have social media YTS facebook to get news,” said Jeni from Port Vila market.

“We’re to busy working in the day to listen to the radio and can’t afford TV as its too expensive so the phone is easier for us and we like Facebook.”

YTS understands that FM107 was the country’s first private radio as VBTC is government media. It started by media man Godwin Ligo with ANZ. It was then passed onto local businessman Natonga to run for some years then later sold to the new owners Andrew Hobbs who is the ex-owner of Wilco.

The radio was very popular over the past years because of its music. But now with mobiles everywhere, everyone has their own music and choice.

107 was popular at a time when Vanuatu was opening up and did not have a radio school and when VBTC could catch up because they had too many problems, service delivery was low and also when Facebook just started and not spread all over yet.

YTS understands that the impact of radio is not like before as social media and Facebook has taken over.

Old media like radio, newspaper, and tv are dying out today as more users jump to social media to promote their media.

More businesses and advertisers worldwide are coming out of old media and investing more in social media and it is more powerful and has more reach to give better sales for the business.